A Sort of 1970’s Quiz August 5, 2014

Here’s a very welcome quiz from Brian Hanley. Answers to be posted up – well, by you, but the full set by the end of the week.

1) In August 1969 which political leader reacted to the arrival of British soldiers in Belfast by stating that ‘the reintroduction of British troops is a step backwards that can never be welcomed here’ and that ‘all the present unrest and tragic loss of life…is directly traceable to the British designed and enacted partition of Ireland’ which could be ‘remedied by granting to Ireland the unity to which her people are intended.’?

2) Which Irish trade union’s general secretary was a former soldier in the British Army’s Parachute regiment?

3) Which journalist resigned from RTE in 1972 in protest at Section 31 of the broadcasting act?

4) Which RTE producer promised that there would be ‘strong and persistent resistance’ to Section 31 and that ‘there are many of us who feel that it would be better to transmit no programmes than to transmit programmes that were censored.’

5) Who wrote in 1975 that ‘an organization like the IRA attracts all the drop-outs and misfits that one would expect. The small-minded bigot, the petty intriguer, the low-sized and the low intellect trying to make themselves large with a gun. The neurotic that has failed in business or marriage through drink or instability and who loudly trumpets up ‘the cause’ and torrentially drowns whoever would oppose it. The fringe element which takes advantage of the disorders of the time to acquire some of the organization’s illicit skills and goes in for freelance robberies.’

6) Which party leader said about a ‘united Ireland’ during 1976: ‘We don’t use that term because of what it has come to mean for the Loyalist in the North-being submerged in a Catholic-type state of the South. Anyhow we are not looking for a unitary nation state. So to avoid misunderstanding we don’t use that phrase any more.’

7) What movement did An Phoblacht describe as being ‘in the Wolfe Tone tradition’ during 1974?

8) Which three Gaelic footballers were accused of manhandling hunger-strike protesters at Croke Park in April 1977?

9) Which newspaper carried an exclusive interview with several members of the Provisional IRA Army Council in September 1976?

10) Who wrote about Conor Cruise O’Brien in 1978 that ‘like all politically-inspired interpretations of history (his) revisionism involved not a little distortion as well as compromise with intellectual honesty…the logical outcome of this set of attitudes was the articulation of something like a neo-Unionist position…in short, whatever he perceives the nuances of his own thinking on Northern Ireland to be, his stance in practice is indistinguishable from that of Tory spokesmen like Mr. Airey Neave and, indeed, from the fatuities of the ‘two nations’ thesis, as enunciated by the British and Irish Communist Organization.’

Just great stuff here and I’m looking forward to the answers.
Would 3 be that chap who served time for not identifying the IRA leader subject of an interview he did? Later became religious affairs correspondent? Name of course escapes me.
Would 1 be Jack Lynch or Tomás MacGiolla?
As Michael says, the answer to some qs has to be Eoghan Harris – so Eoghan Harris for 4.
Trade union gen sec.Q2. There was an English chap (Hall?) as head of one of the ESB unions – ESBOA or the engineers union. He famously embarrassed the employers side at the Labour Court when it was pointed out that their submission contained some naked anti-English racism. He also caught them out as they whispered about something one time by asking was there some kind of “uisce faoi thalamh” afoot.
Finally I have to object to the blatant sizism in that description of the IRA membership in Q5. “Low-sized” indeed! :)

On q8, what event could have been taking place in Croke Park in APRIL 77 at which protesters could have been manhandled? I remember two classmates of mine, Provo Na Fianna members, who attended a protest outside Portlaoise that was baton charged by Gardaí. But can’t think what happened in Croker. Unless it was a League final or something and a protest at that? And were the players also Guards so were they on the pitch and manhandling protesters or were they on Garda duty? All will be revealed…

That was the story, it was a league match.
The Irish National Caucus then objected to the presence of the three Dublin players on the All-Stars tour to America later that year.
Though David Hickey says it wasn’t quite as it was portrayed, the players he knew one of the guys involved and it was more of ‘a for God’s sake lads could ye get off the pitch’ than anything aggressive. A guy who went by the name of Harpo was one of the protesters and would have been a well known Dubs fan at the time.

I was there, though I was Young. I think it was the league final, and the game was just about to begin when a few guys ran on with a H Block banner. I would go with David Hickeys version, but I think one guy was held down with soe force by one of the players, which might have played a role in the subsequent furore.